Graphene supercapacitors are 20 times as powerful, can be made with a DVD burner

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A team of international researchers have created graphene supercapacitors using a LightScribe DVD burner. These capacitors are both highly flexible (pictured below) and have energy and power densities far beyond existing electrochemical capacitors, possibly within reach of conventional lithium-ion and nickel metal hydride batteries.

The team, which was led by Richard Kaner of UCLA, started by smearing graphite oxide — a cheap and very easily produced material — films on blank DVDs. These discs are then placed in a LightScribe drive (a consumer-oriented piece of gear that costs less than $50), where a 780nm infrared laser reduces the graphite oxide to pure graphene. The laser-scribed graphene (LSG) is peeled off and placed on a flexible substrate, and then cut into slices to become the electrodes. Two electrodes are sandwiched together with a layer of electrolyte in the middle — and voila, a high-density electrochemical capacitor, or supercapacitor as they’re more popularly known.

Now, beyond the novel manufacturing process — the scientists are confident it can be scaled for commercial applications, incidentally — the main thing about LSG capacitors is that they have very desirable energy and power characteristics. Power-wise, LSG supercapacitors are capable of discharging at 20 watts per cm3, some 20 times higher than standard activated carbon capacitors, and three orders of magnitude higher than lithium-ion batteries. Energy-wise, we’re talking about 1.36 milliwatt-hours per cm3, about twice the density of activated carbon, and comparable to a high-power lithium-ion battery.

These characteristics stem from the fact that graphene is the most conductive material known to man — the LSG produced by the scientists showed a conductivity of 1738 siemens per meter (yes, that’s a real unit), compared to just 100 siemens for activated carbon. The performance of capacitors is almost entirely reliant on the surface area of the electrodes, so it’s massively helpful that one gram of LSG has a surface area of 1520 square meters (a third of an acre). As previously mentioned, LSG capacitors are highly flexible, too, with no effect on its performance (pictured right).

These graphene supercapacitors could really change the technology landscape. While computing power roughly doubles every 18 months, battery technology is almost at a standstill. Supercapacitors, which suffer virtually zero degradation over 10,000 cycles or more, have been cited as a possible replacement for low-energy devices, such as smartphones. With their huge power density, supercapacitors could also revolutionize electric vehicles, where huge lithium-ion batteries really struggle to strike a balance between mileage, acceleration, and longevity. It’s also worth noting, however, that lithium-ion batteries themselves have had their capacity increased by 10 times thanks to the addition of graphene. Either way, then, graphene seems like it will play a major role in the future of electronics.

“While computing power roughly doubles every 18 months, battery technology is almost at a standstill.”

And then 3 sentences later:
“It’s also worth noting, however, that lithium-ion batteries themselves have had their capacity increased by 10 times thanks to the addition of graphene.”

These stand-stills just don’t stand still like they used to.

http://www.mrseb.co.uk Sebastian Anthony

Ha. Yeah, I should’ve made that clearer. It’s not actually an entire battery — just one half. They still need to find the matching cathode.

http://twitter.com/vessenes vessenes

Actually, Jason was pointing out that battery technology is increasing rapidly; watt-hours / kg has risen significantly in the last 10 years.

http://www.mrseb.co.uk Sebastian Anthony

No… pretty sure he was pointing out my logic failure.

I’m fairly sure that battery capacity isn’t scaling at anywhere near what we need it to be.

http://www.mrseb.co.uk Sebastian Anthony

Ha. Yeah, I should’ve made that clearer. It’s not actually an entire battery — just one half. They still need to find the matching cathode.

rickcain2320

Pro nuke anti battery global warming is a fraud blah blah treehuggers stink blah blah clean coal and so on and so on.

Just wanted to say it before the pundits pounced on this article.

rickcain2320

Pro nuke anti battery global warming is a fraud blah blah treehuggers stink blah blah clean coal and so on and so on.

Just wanted to say it before the pundits pounced on this article.

Anonymous

You DO realize that a battery needs something to charge it, right?

Nuke + batteries = win.

MCope

Wind/solar + battery = even bigger win – almost “free lunch”.

Publius_Valerius

Lightning + capacitors = “free lunch” big dent fossil fuel

rickcain2320

Pro nuke anti battery global warming is a fraud blah blah treehuggers stink blah blah clean coal and so on and so on.

Just wanted to say it before the pundits pounced on this article.

rickcain2320

Pro nuke anti battery global warming is a fraud blah blah treehuggers stink blah blah clean coal and so on and so on.

Just wanted to say it before the pundits pounced on this article.

Anonymous

Just posted on Engadget about how I with Apple would create a Graphene SuperCapacitor and then did a quick search online and found this article. Looks like this stuff is not really as far off as I thought. Looking forward to some research on that LightScribe manufacturing technique.

http://echtekost.nl/ Mark Lindhout

Finally, some lean audio-relevant technology made from pencil.

Rel S

> graphene is the most conductive material known to man

No it’s not. Silver’s conductivity is 36,000 times greater than the number listed!

Sean Jones

Isn’t gold even better?

http://twitter.com/sam_mack Sam MacKenzie

No, it’s about 2/3rds what silver is. It’s used for electrical contacts for it’s corrosion resistance which is much better than silver, so gold/gold contacts would conduct better than silver/silver contacts.

Sean Jones

Isn’t gold even better?

Maventwo

This was a very interesting article!

Funny about that the researchers used only a “Lightscribe DVD-burner with a 780nm infrared beam”
to make the graphene layers for this super capacitor.

Similar simplicity as how Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov made their first layer of 2D-layer of graphene on a scotch tape substrate.

http://www.mrseb.co.uk Sebastian Anthony

Ha, indeed… good point :)

Welcome to ET, by the way!

Doug Robertson

You can buy both scotch tape and a LightScribe DVD burner at your local office supply. I guess the world has changed and so has the concept of simple.
But I also agree with you, that is funny. :-)

http://profiles.google.com/khimera2000 Jonathan Freeman

Holy crap! Something else I can do with my LightScribe drive! Hope they find a way to come out with a DIY kit for people who play with programmable electronics, I can think of a couple of really fun projects for this stuff :D

The lemon battery for the new generation :)

http://www.mrseb.co.uk Sebastian Anthony

In England we had potato batteries :(

Ralph Sands

Quit playing with your food and eat your batteries!

http://www.mrseb.co.uk Sebastian Anthony

ha :)

The Muss

How about we….. humans actually minimize ourselves, so we could work better?

Archangel791051

Graphene … What type of investment opportunities are available for someone like me in this area? I Don’t have much to invest but I know the potential returns could be very lucrative. Especially 4 the new investor like me that has barely anything to invest with. Big returns even on small investments lead to larger investments and larger returns. Over time the accumulative effect could be great.
Graphene is Being blown out of the Water by some of the new Nano-tube(s)/Nano-particle technologies. However, battery power looks like it is set to become a major benefactor of Graphene. Plus, whether you support green energy or not… As easy as it is to produce Graphene it could easily be that leap in technology that makes green energy worth it. Not that saving the planet isn’t a great motivator…

Akassah93

okay. Graphene supercapacitors sound like a good move. What do I have to know in order to make a supercapacitor, and with it, build my own iPhone charger?

Doug Robertson

Great article. Do you have any links to doing this DIY?
I have the lightscribe drive and I would love to play with the ideas.

It is a start. The process looks pretty basic. From the video it looks like Graphite Oxide in water is dried in a thin layer on the CD plastic. The lightscribe laser then heats the material and releases the Oxygen.
I have no doubt there are probably dozens of gotchas in the process. I have no idea how long the material needs to be exposed to the light for it to turn into graphene. Is it sensitive to specific wavelengths? I will look to see if they have published anything. There would hopefully have some details there.
I am curious if this could be modified to be used on an X-Y CNC gantry. Mount the laser on the Head and move a plastic sheet covered in Graphite Oxide below it. You could print flexible PC boards or even complex conductive designs.
This is very interesting.

http://www.facebook.com/jeremypbeal Jeremy Beal

Does this have any ramifications for Solar Cell technology?

Nentuaby

I don’t know if it’ll make the cells any better at actually generating electricity, but it WILL make them much more useful in an indirect fashion. One of the biggest problems with solar and wind has always been that they only produce power part of the time. (I.E., solar is rubbish at running your lamps!) Anything that makes storing energy more efficient reduces the difficulty that poses!

http://twitter.com/rephraser Fraser Rolfe

Power storage is ‘the other half’ of the renewable system. Thermal generation can be ramped up/down as required, but with (most) renewables, we have to make power when the sun shines / wind blows / tides turn. Storing the power is crucial, unless you want to forever maintain enough thermal generation to cover base load on a still night. Renewable power + fast/efficient storage = unicorns’ laughter

Publius_Valerius

Start thinking in terms of Tesla – natural electrical energy abounds everywhere. Storage with both quick and slow charging and measured series discharge. Capaciters of virtual unlimited cycle life. Local electrical networks or connected hubs vs. major production centers and grids. Surface vehicles with ranges greater than a tank of gasoline. Fossil fuels reduced to jet aircraft with propeller craft going hybrid. With virtual unlimited electrical power, fuel needs could be converted to hydrogen with tankage made of the graphene.

Operation BlueStar is simply using the new Graphene
Super Capacitors to replace the Battery. These new capacitors recharge almost
instantaneous and can be printed out on a new 3D printer or even using grapheme
ink to printout the circuit boards. Also, new computer chips are over 1000
times faster than currently and will all be superfast SSDs. This is how the new
Tesla tech will affect the entire world economy. However, costs will continue
to be prohibitive to the general Public to allow for development and
competition of other gas alternatives such as Butanol using biomass. A very few
American Billionaires will take control of the entire world economy until
others develop these technologies in Europe.

http://www.korioi.net/ Korios

The real news will be if this tech ever hits the market; judging from history it is much more likely it will be shelved as well; the most disruptive to the market a new tech is the more chances it will be shelved “for when the world is ready for it” (aka “when we own all the patents and can make more profit out of it than with our batteries”)

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